Corporate Knights' release of 2016 Better World MBA ranking reveals growing commitment to sustainability education in business

TORONTO, Oct. 13, 2016 /CNW/ - Today Corporate Knights releases the 14^th edition of the Better World MBA Ranking, which is the only major global ranking to evaluate graduate business programs on their integration of sustainability into the education of future business leaders. Top programs include Canada's Schulich School of Business at York University, followed by MIT's Sloan School of Management and Duquesne University's Palumbo-Donahue School of Business. The most improved school in this year's ranking over last year is Erasmus University's Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands, which jumped from 33rd in 2015 to 7th overall this year.

Compared to traditional MBA rankings, the Better World MBA ranking is designed to help students and corporate leaders identify solid programs that have the infrastructure to support sustainability skills and knowledge. The rules-based ranking also recognizes those programs which best prepare graduates to solve business problems that intersect with larger social problems, such as climate change and inequality. The Better World MBA ranking evaluates the top 100 programs on the 2016 FT Global MBA ranking, and invites all other accredited (AMBA, AACSB, EQUIS) programs to opt-in. This year, Corporate Knights evaluated 123 programs in total.

One of the findings is that most of the best MBA programs in the world for sustainability are not the same usual suspects that dominate traditional MBA rankings, which tend to be a function of salary-based metrics.

On average, the Top 40 Better World MBA ranking offered students more than twice as much exposure to sustainability themes than the FT 100 Global MBA ranking. It is also notable that 32 of the FT 100 MBA-ranked programs do not have a single core course focused on a sustainability topic.

Sustainability focused	Top 40 Better World MBA ranking	FT 100 MBA ranking
Average # of core courses	3.4	1.1
Average # of institutes/centres	5	2.4
Average # of research papers / faculty (2013-2015)	6.2/10 faculty members	2.6/10 faculty members

"Business schools have a major role to play in preparing the leaders of the future to solve the people-planet-prosperity equation," said Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights. "We are pleased to see an increasing number of business schools stepping up to the plate on this front and look forward to continued progress."

Eligible programs are assessed on the number of core courses related to sustainability (which includes corporate responsibility and ethics), institutes and centres devoted to the field, and faculty research related to sustainability produced in the last three years. The ranking is designed to be objective, transparent, and encourage participation. The Better World MBA ranking was formerly known as the Knight Schools ranking, focusing on Canadian schools since its inception in 2005 until 2012, when it expanded to become a global ranking that is more representative of the type of choices that MBA students have when selecting a program.

About Corporate Knights:
Founded in 2002, Corporate Knights is a Toronto-based media and research company focused on clean capitalism – an economic system that incorporates social, economic and ecological factors – and reports on sustainability at the intersection of business and society. As a "Magazine of the Year" winner in 2013 from the National Magazine Awards in Canada, Corporate Knights is best known for rules-based transparent rankings of corporate sustainability performance, including the Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada and the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. Learn more at www.corporateknights.com.

Appendix A – 2016 Better World MBA Ranking (Top 40)

School	Country	2016 Rank
York University – Schulich School of Business	Canada	1
MIT Sloan School of Management	U.S.	2
Duquesne University – Palumbo Donohue School of Business	U.S.	3
Copenhagen Business School	Denmark	4
INSEAD	France	5
McGill University – Desautels Faculty of Management	Canada	6
Erasmus University – Rotterdam School of Management	Netherlands	7
University of Warwick – Warwick Business School	United Kingdom	8
University of Calgary – Haskayne School of Business	Canada	9
University of Vermont – Grossman School of Business	U.S.	10
Saint Mary's University – Sobey School of Business	Canada	11
Nottingham University Business School	United Kingdom	12
Harvard University – Harvard Business School	U.S.	13
University of British Columbia – Sauder School of Business	Canada	14
Mannheim Business School	Germany	15
Georgia Institute of Technology – Scheller College of Business	U.S.	16
University of Bath – School of Management (BAT)	United Kingdom	17
Stanford University – Stanford Graduate School of Business	U.S.	18
University of Cambridge – Judge Business School	United Kingdom	19
Duke University – Fuqua School of Business	U.S.	20
University of London – London Business School	United Kingdom	21
Maastricht University – School of Business and Economics	Netherlands	22
Simon Fraser University – Beedie School of Business	Canada	23
Audencia Business School	France	24
George Washington University – School of Business	U.S.	25
TIAS School for Business and Society	Netherlands	26
University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School of Business	U.S.	27
University of Strathclyde – Strathclyde Business School	United Kingdom	28
Dalhousie University – Rowe School of Business	Canada	29
Macquarie University – Macquarie Graduate School of Management	Australia	30
University of Ottawa – Telfer School of Management	Canada	31
University of California at Berkeley – Haas School of Business	U.S.	32
University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business	U.S.	33
University of Oxford – Saïd Business School	United Kingdom	34
Concordia University – John Molson School of Business	Canada	35
University of Navarra – IESE Business School	Spain	36
Guilfford Glazer Faculty of Bus. & Mgmt	Israel	37
Durham University – Durham University Business School	United Kingdom	38
Yale University – Yale School of Management	U.S.	39
EuroMBA (Netherlands)	Netherlands	40

SOURCE Corporate Knights Inc.

Toby Heaps, CEO, Corporate Knights, [email protected], Office: +(1) 416.203.4674